Breaking Boundaries
by Kuriyan BBQ
Summary: Star walks in on Marco in the shower, creating an awkward situation which threatens to irreversibly alter the nature of their friendship. Inspired by fanwork which is featured in the thumbnail by Judacris on his tumblr page * post/160554807754/well-this-is-kinda-awkward-more-star-vs **ON HIATUS UNTIL I DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH IT**
1. Springing Forward

**BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BE-**

The whine of an alarm clock is silenced as a groggy but well rested Marco Diaz began to shrug off his initial drowsiness after a good night's sleep. After taking a moment to sit up and stretch, Marco let out a contented yawn and blinked his eyes to adjust to the bright rays coming in through his window.

For a moment Marco wondered to himself what seemed different about this Sunday morning. Why did he feel so relaxed? While many would call him a spaz and a worrywart, even he realized that there was a little less tension in his muscles than usual. He couldn't put his finger on why until his eyes swept over the room and caught his wall clock; it read 6:45 am.

Marco rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked again, squinting to make sure he wasn't mistaken. "Not even seven o'clock...? Why did my alarm go off so early?" Confused, he glanced back over at his alarm clock which greeted him with the time he expected to see, 7:45.

Now the realization trickled down over him. "Daylight Saving Time, that's right." This morning they skipped forward an hour, and now Marco remembered his plan from last night: Go to sleep two hours early and hopefully circumvent the frustration of waking up an hour earlier than his body is used to.

Thankful for the extra rest, Marco got out of bed and made his way toward to bathroom door. He knew that he would still have plenty of time to start the morning off right. There would be ample time to get cleaned up, make some breakfast, and still catch whatever Sunday morning movie marathon would be playing once Star came down and they were done eating. His was a weekly morning ritual that he was way too comfortable with to break over a simple change of the clock.

Making his way into the bathroom with a fresh towel, he glanced over at the vanity and noticed his stuff a little disorganized from the previous night. He shrugged and decided he'd rather clean it up now than after he's done in the shower. _**At least it isn't THAT big of a mess**_ he thought, looking over at the toiletries and tools that were piled up around the other side of the sink to the right of his own. He could never forget that he currently shared his bathroom with his polar opposite when it comes to organization. "As long as it's not on my side, she can keep it" he said to himself. He managed a small chuckle at the mess and went back to finishing up with his own side.

After spending over half a year living with Star Butterfly, Marco has become accustomed to clutter that, at one time, may have given him a panic attack. He could never imagine treating his own stuff the same way, but Star is just a bright, eccentric ball of energy that has her own way of doing things. Being a little disorganized is something he can ignore if it means having the coolest best friend a guy could ask for. As far as he is concerned, nobody else on Earth has the privilege of calling an inter-dimensional princess with a magic wand their bestie. Just last week they were in a dimension full of giant, marshmallow-like trees and rode a cloud through a candy rain. It was practically an understatement to say that life was interesting in the best possible way.

Marco cleared off any residual pieces of hair, toothpaste stains, and drops of water and reorganized his side completely after a few minutes. He took a moment to review his work before giving his seal of approval and deciding it was time to have a nice, long, and relaxing shower. He brought the water temperature to a comfortable heat, letting out a sigh of relief as he felt the not-quite scalding droplets of water begin to melt away his tension from a week of classes and chaotic hijinks. He finally lowered his guard and just soaked in the intoxicating heat of a well-deserved shower, apathetic to his surroundings and unaware that another member of the house was already awake and moving around just one room over.

* * *

" _Awesome feeling_

 _We started out as friend-nemies_

 _But then you opened up to me_

 _And found that we have chemistry..._ "

Star was bobbing her head up and down excitedly, mouthing the words to one of her favorite Love Sentence songs as it blasted through a pair of headphones she poofed up with her wand a month ago. She wasn't sure why, but she felt ever so slightly tired and disoriented, as though she had dragged herself out of bed earlier than usual. She brushed the thought off, knowing that she always slept the same amount if nobody or nothing woke her up first. Something, nonetheless, still seemed off. It may not have been apparent from the outside, as she was always putting out her infectious, bubbly attitude when she got up, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't quite fully alert like she should have been.

Star looked around her room, nothing seemed out of place; it was just a normal Sunday morning. She could have sworn the far side of the room seemed a little dim, but that detail wasn't quite suspicious enough to hold her attention. Not quite sure what to make of the weird vibes, she decided that she could go downstairs and ask Marco about it when she was done in the shower. She felt off, but she was still excited for another Sunday with her bestie and looked forward to finding out what they would catch on TV or to, perhaps, checking off yet another dimension from her list of totally cool places to show Marco.

She got her things to get ready for her shower and sauntered into the bathroom, still bumping to the song and enjoying herself. Ever since she made her magical headphones, she has taken to occasionally showering with her music. Since her headphones were powered by her magic instead of electricity, they were waterproof, and, as far as Star's concerned, Love Sentence can make even a quiet morning shower into a fun little concert.

Star noticed the humidity in the air as she smirked and thought to herself while the song continued blaring in her ears. _**Silly Marco. Someone must have been running late. Hope he didn't steal all of the hot water before he was done.**_ She also noticed the fresh towel Marco left in the room and smiled. _**At least he left a clean towel as an apology**_ , she concluded. She stripped off her pajamas and placed them over by the sink, then grabbing the towel to hang over the shower. She opened the door to get in and clean up.

" _And you were like, "ooh-ahh-ooh"_

 _And I was like, "ooh-eee-ooh"_

 _White tiger's like_ -"

"WHAAAAHHHHHHHHH!? STAR!?" Star shot up and her eyes popped open as she tensed up and raised her arms reflexively in a combat posture, startled silly by the unexpected noise. She regained her senses and looked ahead to see Marco's shocked face. For a moment she wondered what was wrong. The next moment she realized that he wasn't wearing any clothes... and the moment after that she remembered that she, too, was not wearing any clothes.

Star froze up and looked at Marco for a second, paralyzed by embarrassment, confusion, and... something else? After a few seconds she snapped out of her daze and immediately reddened as she realized what she was doing.

"I-I-I'M S-S-SORRY, M-MARCO!"

She took a step backward, bolting out of the shower. Then she grabbed the towel, wrapped it around herself and shut the shower door. Her knees gave out under her and she dropped to the floor, leaning against the now closed shower door. She was shaking for a moment, as she had not been prepared for the awkward and vulnerable moment that she had just shared with her best friend.

* * *

Marco was also no longer on his feet, experiencing a similar loss of leg strength at the sudden, violent disruption of his relaxing shower and the extreme violation of his privacy that followed. He had just found himself in a situation he could not have been prepared for: he was nude and Star had just walked in on him, the tiny shower space barely having room to contain the both of them, and reactively screamed out in embarrassment. When she froze up and stared at him, he did the same, the fact that he was looking at an uncovered Star Butterfly hitting him like a brick.

It couldn't have lasted for more than three or four seconds, but they both succumbed to feelings of self-consciousness and were left speechless after Star finally placed the shower door between them once more. He sat against the door from his side and shook his head, rebooting his faculties and trying to come to terms with what had just happened.

Star had walked in on him during his shower time, so this was her goof up... and yet Marco felt absolutely guilty, as though he had taken advantage of his best friend in a vulnerable state.

A few more seconds ticked by and his nerves began to loosen back up, the shocked expression not daring to leave his face just yet. He was practically catatonic, not entirely sure himself what he was thinking about now.

"Marco... I-I wasn't expecting you to be in the shower ... it's a Sunday... y-you're usually done when I wake up..." Marco heard from Star as she tried to move past the awkward silence filled with tension thicker than the heavily humid air in the bathroom. Marco didn't respond at first, and Star felt completely incapable of overcoming the uncharacteristic caution she felt as she considered her next words.

"...Star," Marco finally spoke through the lump that formed in his throat, "It's 8:00, we went to bed early last night because we lost an hour..."

* * *

Suddenly the realization came around to Star too. She remembered seeing Marco messing with his alarm clock, trying to explain "Daylight Savings Day" or whatever it was and suggesting they go to sleep early to make up for it. She must have gone to sleep too early and woke up during Marco's shower time. She stared ahead to the sink, realizing why she felt like something was off this morning and realizing that she had goofed big time.

"Oh..." Was all she could make out as she continued to process both her mistake and the consequence of it. She felt as though she had leaped over a painfully tall hurdle that she shouldn't have. She wanted to turn around and hop back over it, but she couldn't. Everything felt wrong. There were now feelings of awkwardness, uncertainty, cloudiness, transgression, betrayal; things weren't supposed to be like this. Star felt like the worst friend in the world.

She breathed in to apologize properly and try to push through this moment, but her breath hitched as her mind wandered back to that frightening, brief moment where they were both completely unclothed, standing face to face, red-faced, and frozen, staring wide-eyed in one another's direction. She shook her head, clearing away those thoughts and slowly found her voice once more.

"Marco?"

"Yes, Star?" Marco said as he regained a little more control of his thoughts, determined to fix _whatever_ this was.

"...Are we still friends?"

"Of course we are still friends."

Star let out a small sigh of relief and continued.

"Friends make mistakes, right?"

"...They do."

" And when they do, they forgive each other, right?"

"They forgive each other, Star."

With those words, Star finally calmed down. She was able to regain some of her composure and was internally thanking Marco for being so patient with her. She didn't usually mind sharing the bathroom with Marco, but she thought perhaps it was best that she leave him be for the rest of his shower. She stood up to go grab her pajamas and move back into her room before she heard Marco's voice.

"Star?" It sounded like something else had occurred to him.

"Yes, Marco?" she replied

"...Can you get me a new towel?".

Star looked down and realized that the towel now wrapped around her body must have been the one he was intending to use.

"Okay."

Star gathered her things and left the bathroom. She returned to drop off a new towel but had once again lost her voice as she returned to her room, trying to avoid thinking about what happened. She laid on her bed and looked up at the ceiling, placing her hands on her face. She felt like she had a fever, and she knew that her efforts of dropping the matter were ultimately doomed until Marco was ready to relinquish the bathroom to her.

What Star was unaware of was that Marco hadn't yet returned to his feet, also struggling to stop thinking about what had just happened and wondering about the effect it was having on his state of mind.

* * *

 **Author's Notes :**

 **Hello everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read. I've never done this before, but the idea has been stirring in my head all week thanks to the deviantart post "** **An Awkward Situation" by dm29** **making its way to the Star vs Subreddit. It got the gears spinning and so brought me to this idea. This is not a one-shot, I will be continuing it soon, but it is definitely not supposed to be a very long story either.**

 **The thumbnail is from this work by Judacris on his tumblr page *** **post/160554807754/well-this-is-kinda-awkward-more-star-vs**

 **I appreciate any feedback you can give me as I pave my way through the rest of this drought of a hiatus.**


	2. Space

Marco lay on his bed, clothed but stalled. His whole morning had been set, and it most certainly still was, but he couldn't help but delay himself after finishing up and getting dressed. He stared blankly up at the ceiling; he traced the wooden frame along the ceiling. His mind was practically empty, the only sensation he could take in was the muffled sound of running water coming from the door.

Nothing was apparently wrong anymore; he and Star had a weird moment but talked it out and got past a situation that, while certainly intensely embarrassing, was, in hindsight, not that bad. The moment came and went... but it hadn't actually went... not quite. He brought a hand to his temple, rubbing it thoughtfully as he pondered why. He wasn't embarrassed anymore. He wasn't angry. He wasn't confused, upset, flustered, bothered, or... anything, really. The problem was gone, but, for some reason, it _wasn't_ gone. He wanted to admonish himself for being able to reach such a ridiculous conclusion, but he didn't really know what else to think.

He tried to think about to how he was feeling before; how had he gotten here now, distracted and blank-faced. Those few seconds rushed back into his mind as he relived the moment where he and Star just locked up in front of each other for no reason. What was he thinking during that fleeting moment? What was he feeling? He couldn't answer that question. All he knew was that he was embarrassed right before and, just after, he was overcome with guilt and feelings of self-consciousness. Did he simply forget what was going through his head during that moment? Was he feeling nothing? Or had he, possibly, detached himself from whatever was going through his mind at the time? Just as he believed it mattered to address the issue, it also didn't. At least, it didn't matter right now.

Marco rose from the bed and purported to get back to what he was doing so that the two of them would still have something to eat when Star came downstairs. He had all day to figure out what was on his mind, and even this irritation wasn't about to completely get in the way of his Sunday morning routine. A few minutes later, after he had put together some ingredients and was fully busying himself with frying some pancakes, Marco felt like himself again. He made two generous stacks for Star and himself and a few extra pancakes to set aside in case his parents returned from their morning errands anytime soon. He put the finishing touches on their food and set the table for breakfast.

* * *

Star finished cleaning up and found her way down the stairs not too long after Marco had finished setting the table. She saw the pancakes and began bouncing happily on her heels at Marco's handiwork. The smell was so good, and it was wafting through the room. Despite being a really simple meal, Star always loved pancake breakfasts, and, really, anything Marco could whip up. He has never managed to cook something she didn't love.

"Food food food food food food food! Yay!" Star chirped with delight.

Marco appeared to perk up at the sight of his hungry best friend and sat down at the table. "I think I got the mix nearly perfect this time" he said.

* * *

They enjoyed their breakfast thoroughly, chowing down on their pancakes and telling some jokes. If it seemed like their Sunday morning breakfast was actually more enjoyable than usual, it was most certainly thanks in part to the fact that their run-in this morning had not managed to get in the way of the two friends enjoying their Sunday as always. They both had an itch to scratch in the back of their mind somewhere, but food, TV, and fun between best friends was simply a bigger priority.

Once they cleaned up their breakfast and put everything away, Marco picked up the remote and began fiddling with the TV. Star plopped down on the couch and began playing with one of the other cushions while Marco started channel-hopping. He was jumping through their regular channels for anything that might catch their eye. They were satisfied after finding a movie playing that Marco had mentioned to Star a few times before but only today finally managed to catch. Marco looked over at Star for approval and was, instead, met with a couch cushion to the face.

Marco rolled his eyes, pretending to be annoyed. His effort was betrayed as he could not suppress the smirk that her antics had caused. "You could find just about anything to entertain yourself with, couldn't you?" he teased.

Star let out a small giggle and pushed back. "You are just jealous that I know how to have fun and you don't." she said.

"Come on, Star, I know how to have a good time."

"No way, Diaz! Your imagination needs work!"

"After eating my food for six months, there is no way you can say I'm not creative."

Star laughed as Marco picked up the cushion and walked over to tuck it back into place. "You are not _completely_ wrong about that." she admitted.

Marco finished straightening out the couch cushion and sat down to watch the movie while Star stretched out and allowed a little yawn to escape her mouth... Marco felt something brush along his leg. He looked down and realized that Star had nudged him during her stretch. Suddenly, he began to feel self-conscious again, and this time, he _really_ could not figure out why. He looked over and saw Star. She was sitting where she always sat, and he was sitting where he always sat. But he couldn't help but feel as though he was a little too close... and he wasn't entirely sure why. He glanced down at her arm and her side, and a nagging feeling caused him to feel a bit tense. Without much more thought, Marco gently scooted himself over, placing just a little bit more distance between himself and Star. He felt a little annoyed with himself at first, but was thankful that the tension he was feeling had begun to subside when he did. He wasn't more comfortable now per say, but it, thankfully, helped him snap focus back on the movie.

* * *

As Marco's attention managed to turn back on the TV, Star's had already been pulled away from it. She had just gotten comfortable and began to watch the movie, but she couldn't help but notice Marco shifting himself and moving away from her. She felt a slight ache in her stomach. For a moment she was confused at the feeling, believing that it had surely been nothing; she was never one to notice little details like that anyhow. For some reason, however, Star could tell that something just _seemed_ to be bothering Marco. Even he may not have been paying attention to it now, but something about him was just... restrained. The ache came back again as she was ambushed by her thoughts from this morning, when she was still upstairs.

 ** _I'm making him uncomfortable_** Star thought to herself. _**He must have tensed up because I invaded his privacy. He... he's probably worried that I'm going to keep doing it.**_

Star's mind was now in turmoil. She felt almost upset that Marco must have wanted space, wanted to keep his distance from her. She knew it was selfish, but she was so happy how comfortable they could be with one another. They were besties, best friends, stuck together like glue. She never realized just how much she appreciated that they were effortlessly close, and comfortably so, almost all the time. Although now she was forced to realize that Marco must be wanting to push back on that. She made a mistake, and now she was being selfish. She didn't even know why she was so sad that Marco wanted space, but she did know that she had to be there for him... by being less there. Star didn't want Marco to be uncomfortable, so she let it go. She had to give him more personal space and allow him to keep his distance, especially after...

Star's mind went back to that moment in the shower, and her mind went blank again. Time seemed to slow down as she was drawn deeper into her own thoughts. She imagined the vulnerability, the intimacy, and the suddenness of the moment, and she began to feel feverish again. She looked over and saw Marco, eyes ahead, fixed on the movie now. Star found herself frozen again for just a moment. She stared at him for a few seconds, taking in the image of her friend's messy umber brown hair and aloof expression. She felt that ache in her stomach once again and now a pressure in her chest and her arms began to cause her to tense up a little. She shifted herself a little away from him, the only thing on her mind now being her desire to avoid letting Marco catch her breaching his privacy again.

She took a quiet breath and calmed herself back down. Star felt there was no need to get so worked up about this and she just wanted to enjoy her morning with her bestie.

"Star!"

"Huh, wah, what!?"

Marco's voice plucked Star from her own thoughts, time itself picking up its pace as Star's attention returned to the living room.

"I said, have you ever tried to make one of those with your magic?"

Star looked back to the movie and saw the characters comically poking a huge jello mold. She cocked her head to the side and looked at it in confusion.

"It looks like a candy soupy thing. Why is able to stand up and wiggle and stuff?" she asked.

"Honestly, I don't know myself. Jello has always just been kind of weird to me. It is really neat how you can put something inside of it and it will basically anchor in place, even if the jello is wiggling."

The conversation had grabbed Star's attention. She proceeded to ask Marco about if there were other foods that were weird like that. After a few more comments back and forth on the matter they both went back to watching the movie and enjoyed themselves. The movie played on and eventually reached its conclusion. Star burst out laughing at Marco who was quoting one of the funny scenes from earlier. "I wish people were always this funny. School would be SO much more fun."

* * *

While Star and Marco will still laughing at movie quotes, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz came home, greeting the two as well as a horde of overly excited laser puppies with big smiles on their faces.

"I hope you two have had a wonderful morning" Mr. Diaz said with tons of enthusiasm. "Have you made any plans for the rest of the day?"

"Actually no," Marco replied, "I was just about to ask Star what she had in mind."

Mrs. Diaz, still rubbing one of the puppies on its tummy chimed in. "Well, our favorite pool just finished renovations and we were planning to spend a while over there. Would you two like to come along?"

Marco looked over to Star whose face lit up immediately. "I'd LOVE to go swimming today!" She said excitedly.

"It has been pretty cold this week, has it finally warmed up a little?" Marco asked.

"Yep! It is 84 today and sunny, its perfect." Mr. Diaz said.

Hearing that, Marco was sold on the idea. They had already spent the morning inside, and Marco felt that getting outside and doing something would be great for both Star and him. The movie had totally taken his mind off of it, but staying inside in the quiet house was starting to make Marco feel strangely antsy. That and Star seemed more distracted than usual considering how good the movie was. He would have been worried about her if she hadn't seemed so entertained by the hilariously stupid humor that they kept poking fun at.

Star leaped up from the couch and put her hands up excitedly. "I'm going to go get ready. I can't wait to see the new pool!" She bounced up and down a few times before taking off for the stairs. Marco could not help but notice her energetically shuffling up the steps, her hair swinging wildly as she stepped. She seemed happy, but as she disappeared behind the ceiling, he felt a familiar annoyance creep up in back of his mind once again. This was the same feeling he had experienced earlier, just after he had forced himself to scoot away from Star during the movie. His mind went blank. After brooding over it for a few moments, Marco decided again to just let it go for now. He really needed to figure out what the heck was going on in his head, but now was not the time. He had to get ready for the pool too. He didn't want to keep Star waiting if she was this excited to get to the pool.

Marco made his way up the stairs toward his room to change. He took one look over at the door across the hall, the door to Star's room. He shook his head and turned toward his room to get back to what he was doing.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Hello everyone! Thank you to everyone who gave chapter one a read. I have not forgotten about this story, and I have been meaning to get working on another chapter, but I have had to spend a lot of time thinking about how I wanted the rest of this to play out. The prompt for chapter one was essentially written for me, but I really had to start moving toward my own end goal with this story. I think I have a path straightened out for the rest. There was not any intention for this to be more than a few chapters, but I am realizing that, with my pacing, it may stretch a few chapters. I'll have to work it out**

 **Thank you all once again for reading, thank you for sparing some of your time for me. Reviews, favorites, and follows are appreciated. Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts with me. I wrote this for everyone, not just for me.**

 **The thumbnail is from this work by Judacris on his tumblr page *** **post/160554807754/well-this-is-kinda-awkward-more-star-vs**

 **Be sure to check out his work!**

 **Happy Saturday!**


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